Can life get any better? Campfire, hotdogs, and marshmallows!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009. My roommates (Meaghan, Marianne, and Becky), Meredith, Erika, and a few friends from BYU, Kristin and Julia went up Millcreek Canyon in SLC to build a campfire, roast hotdogs, and smores! We picked a spot near the river, started the fire, and began roasting! It was slightly chilly so I was glad I wore layered jackets. We had a lot of fun and decided to make an official "campfire/roasting" box with the leftover marshmallows and cookies to take for future adventures.

Erika and Becky preparing to build the fire!

Julia, Kristin, and I roasting our marshmallows!

This is my favorite picture of my roommate Marianne. She's so awesome!

Smores anyone! Oh yah, stripped Keebler cookies sandwhiching a roasted marshmallow, could life get any better!

I can make breadsticks!

So my parmesan cheese breadsticks didn't look quite like these, but close! A month ago, I spent a few hours writing down my favorite recipes from my mom's collection, and today I decided to give this one a whirl. I was excited...success! I can't wait to try something else and see if I really have a nitch for cooking and baking now that I have the time to do it. :)

Happy Nurses Day! May 6th!

I love being a nurse! I have had so many great experiences at Primary Children's Hospital. I love my co-workers, managers, and the doctors are great! In celebration of this day, I wanted to take a look back at my nursing study abroad trip to Argentina in spring 2007. This cute little guy was my buddy in the NICU! He really relaxed when I stroked his head, which pretty much fit in my palm. Oh I miss him, I hope he's doing well!

Argentina had some pretty interesting ideas! A few are demonstrated here! They shield the sun from the window with paper towels and they believe the saran wrap on the baby keeps the heat in. We tried to teach them it can harbor bacteria from the moisture, but to no avail they kept it on! We tried. So to all my nursing friends, Happy Nurses Day! You are all such great nurses, and friends! Thank you for your friendship, love, and support in my life!

I'm addicted to this new song by Jon Schmidt! Love Story meets Viva la Vida!

Emily graduated from BYU in Biology! Way to go Em!

April 24, 2009. Emily and I outside the Marriot Center at BYU. She was waiting to walk in and text me to come chat with her while she waited. I came with my mom and Grandpa Hardy, but Grandma Hardy stayed home. ;( And dad left his phone at home, so luckily he was able to borrow someones to find us. They were handing out free chocolate milk and cinnamon rolls outside to people. So Emily picked up a chocolate milk for dad, he's addicted to it!

Emily shaking Sandra Rogers hand, she was the administrative representative at the convocation. She's actually a Nurse and used to work in the College of Nursing. Go Nursing!

Grandpa Hardy and me! Isn't he cute!

Okay so Emily wasn't expecting me to pull one of my weird faces in this picture! So we tried again and ...

She finally gave in and pulled a good one! Yah Em, we look so cute!

Maui, Hawaii...what a blast!

Maui, Hawaii! April 12-19, 2009. We snorkeled, hiked, swam, sun-tanned, and relaxed for a whole week. No work, no internet...just one fun week with my family! I love life!

I love this photo! We arrived on Maui, April 12, 2009, rented our Chevy Malibu from Avis, and set off. As we drove down the coast, I saw the sun setting and wanted to catch the beauty.

I love these hibiscus flowers!

On Tuesday, April 14, 2009, we walked out to the beach from our Marriot Resort and went half a mile or so to a cove area to snorkel. I bought my own snorkel set from Costco before we left, so I was excited to try it out. Towards the end of our adventure, Emily and I spotted a sea turtle swimming beneath us. I was so excited to see one in the ocean. I bought an underwater camera and quickly snapped a photo of him. Amazingly all of my photos turned out well. My dad and I also snorkeled on Saturday and saw three sea turtles, which I was stoked about!

The clan at the Old Lahaina Luau! They gave us the beautiful leis and we took family photos with the sunset. They unveiled the pig from under the sand, served food, and provided us an amazing show. Wow, those girls can move their hips and the guys sure looked good!

I am impersonating this cute little wooden man outside the Old Lahaina Luau. Did I do a good job?

Em and I showing our sweet shaved ice treats! It sure hit the right spot on such a hot day!

The Road to Hana! A road with 600+ turns and 59 one way bridges! Yah, we brought along Dramamine, but only Neal needed it towards the end. My dad was relieved to get the rental car back to the resort in one piece.

Okay, so this is the Haleakala crater sunrise at 6am. We all woke up at 2:30am, drove a few hours to the crater, and waited with a bunch of other crazy people! It was freezing, so we brought blankets from the resort, yet it was fun to see what other people brought to keep them warm. I should've taken a picture of the couple in their resort bath robes. You do what you have to do I guess!

Em and I at Whaler's Village, a fun shopping mall, where we watched a cute group of girls perform some hula dances for us!

Starfish! :) We went to the Maui Ocean Aquarium and had a great time seeing some of the sea life we didn't see while snorkeling and some that I'm glad I didn't see!

Yeah for Sea Turtles!!!

This big guy was really cute!

Oh baby sea turtles! Okay so the one above was Dude Crush and this is Squirt from Finding Nemo. Isn't he cute! He's just little!

A few books I've been reading!

If you've never heard of Jane Eyre, start out by watching the movie! It was spectacular! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, having not known anything from never reading the book. I loved it! Now I am reading the book and enjoying it a lot because I picture the characters from the movie. I like it that way. I'm about half way through it, try it, you might find you'll like this classic.

I hope you've heard about the Fablehaven series, if not, start reading them. Reviews have said they are similar in how the Harry Potter series are books for both adults and children. Fablehaven is full of fantasy-adventure, twists and turns, scary plots, and fun! I've just started into the third book, but I can't wait to finish so I can start number 4 that just came out a week ago.